Activision Game Reviews
Review Transformers Prime (Wii U)
You've got the touch (screen)
The long-running Transformers franchise has shifted, morphed and diverged enough to certainly live up to its name since debuting in 1984: the original Generation 1 adored by long-time fans and purists, Beast Wars, a few Michael Bay interpretations and loads of comic books and video games. Much of the fiction's focus...
Review Rapala Pro Bass Fishing (Wii U)
Dead in the water
In attempting to craft a realistic fishing experience, Rapala Pro Bass Fishing got one thing exactly right: you'll be sitting around doing nothing for most of the time you play it. Unfortunately that's due to its almost insultingly lengthy load times, but we'll still give it some credit for unintentional verisimilitude. The...
Review Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013 (Wii U)
The hunt is on?
Maybe we're just gullible human beings here at Nintendo Life Towers, but we expected Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013 to feature some...you know...hunting. Not that we're disappointed, as this far more action-oriented approach has undoubtedly made for a better game, but the FPS / survival approach certainly caught us off guard. So,...
Review Skylanders Giants (Wii U)
Not a giant leap
Plastic peripherals and Activision seem to be a match made in heaven, with Guitar Hero and then Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure both emptying our wallets. Well, it's not safe to put your money away just yet, as Skylanders Giants hits the shelves complete with a whole new set of must-have plastic collectables. So it's back to Skylands...
Review Moshi Monsters Moshlings Theme Park (3DS)
Goopendous or a Moshi-mess?
Moshi Monsters Moshlings Theme Park is based on the Moshi Monsters website, a popular Neopets-style virtual pet game that lets you adopt a monster, customise its home and play mini-games to collect prizes. The franchise's first video game outing took the monsters to a zoo, and now they're taking a break to vacation at a...
Review Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Wii U)
Always outnumbered, never outgunned
Black Ops was a remarkable achievement for Treyarch. By finally carving out their own vision of the franchise, one steeped in Cold War history and with narrative focus, the studio broke out from under Infinity Ward's imposing shadow and pulled off one of the most compelling games in the series. It was a breath of...
Review James Bond: 007 Legends (Wii U)
Thunderbore
With the new James Bond film Skyfall currently rocking movie theaters across the globe, you might expect this year's 007 game to be all about the present. Instead, Eurocom's swansong digs into the franchise's rich 50-year legacy, updating some of Bond's more memorable moments for the modern era. With the successful re-imagining of...
Thrills and spills
Gamers will forever associate the name Wipeout with Psygnosis' futuristic racing series, but in the world of primetime TV, Wipeout means wacky announcers, massive pratfalls and Big Red Balls. Based on ABC's hit US game show (which our UK readers will recognize as Total Wipeout) Wipeout 3 brings the slapstick spirit of the show to...
Review Transformers Prime (3DS)
More than meets the eye?
Long-time Transformers fans have enjoyed a renaissance of sorts this console generation, with the Cybertron games offering a vision of the robots in disguise that those of us who grew up with the old cartoon could get behind in our capacity as grumpy old men. Keen to serve fans of all ages, Activision has turned its...
Review Skylanders Giants (Wii)
Big friendly giant
Fe, fi, fo, fum, we smell the coins of dads and mums. Since its first release on consoles last year, Skylanders has exploded into a multi-million dollar franchise and a children's favourite. What would have been a fairly standard hack-and-slash game by itself was taken to new heights thanks to a clever reliance on collectable...
Truth in advertising
Are you a fan of the Trash Pack toyline? Your answer to that question dictates whether or not you'll find anything of value in The Trash Pack for 3DS, as there's nothing noteworthy about this release apart from its connection to that franchise. The Trash Pack forgoes story altogether and presents you, simply, with a menu. From...
Review Angry Birds Trilogy (3DS)
Fowl play
Something of a cultural phenomenon by now, Rovio's Angry Birds franchise is one of the few in gaming to capture the general public's eye, time, wallet and wardrobe, becoming the poster child for "the future" of the industry. It has been called quite a few things in its meteoric rise: Herald of the death of dedicated gaming handhelds...
Review The Amazing Spider-Man (3DS)
Hyperbole, True Believers!
You've got to hand it to Beenox for its stewardship of Spider-Man's games. While each entry has had its share of problems, the studio has pushed the webslinger in fun and genuinely interesting new directions by tapping into the character's rich diversity and exploring comic book universes largely ignored in video games,...
Gentlemen, please don’t start your engines
Over the years, the high speed competitive sport of repetitive left turns, otherwise known as NASCAR, has fuelled the hearts of racing enthusiasts around the world. In some places, you can hardly step into a crowded area without seeing some sort of branded paraphernalia. With young drivers like Kyle Busch...
Review Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Wii)
Tried and true
By the time you read this, Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has already sold millions upon millions of copies to a worldwide fanbase and been touted as the biggest entertainment launch of all time. To keep its unprecedented growth up, the franchise has continued to top itself year after year with increasingly elaborate...
Review Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (3DS)
The great gig in the sky
There's something magical about a good toy. Be it an action figure, doll, transforming truck, projectile-spitting dragon or a wooden block, it doesn't matter how many removable parts or points of articulation they have once burrowed into your imagination and destined for Great Adventure along with the rest of the toy chest...
Review Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Wii)
Gotta buy 'em all
There's something magical about a good toy. Be it an action figure, doll, transforming truck, projectile-spitting dragon or a wooden block, it doesn't matter how many removable parts or points of articulation they have once burrowed into your imagination and destined for Great Adventure along with the rest of the toy chest. Your...
XY oh why
X-Men is the type of comic series that makes it tempting to visualise yourself in a starring role. Its heroes are just like the rest of us, give or take a few chromosomes, and its universe works both as an allegory for coming to terms with your identity as it does for the larger issue of race relations. But does X-Men: Destiny mutate into...
Review Spider-Man: Edge of Time (3DS)
It ain't easy being radioactive
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions had a lot going for it last year with its snappy presentation of four incarnations of the webhead powered by a scrappy developer. While not quite in swinging distance of comic game king Batman: Arkham Asylum, Shattered Dimensions brought a massive jolt to a franchise on life support...
Review Spider-Man: Edge of Time (Wii)
Here come the Spider-Men
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions had a lot going for it last year with its snappy presentation of four incarnations of the webhead powered by a scrappy developer. While not quite in swinging distance of comic game king Batman: Arkham Asylum, Shattered Dimensions brought a massive jolt to a franchise on life support — and...
Review Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Stealth Force Edition (3DS)
Transformers! Now with less transforming
When you think of Transformers, you likely recall the catchphrase “robots in disguise.” Autobots and Decepticons can go from behemoth robot to your average GMC in a heartbeat, able to fool unsuspecting eyes into thinking they are no more than your everyday automobile. So it seems a bit strange to then...
Review Call of Duty: Black Ops (DS)
Portable ops
Even though they're wheeled out every year alongside their console cousin, n-Space's Call of Duty games on DS never cease to surprise. From making first-person gameplay work well on the unconventional handheld to pushing horsepower limits, each entry seems to have something new to prove. This year, Call of Duty: Black Ops pushes the DS...
Review Call of Duty: Black Ops (Wii)
Back in black
The Call of Duty series has come a long way from its humble origins as a Medal of Honor competitor, now standing as a world-conquering video game superpower able to clear release calendars with the mere threat of its presence in a month. On HD platforms, that is, with Nintendo's little white box relegated to answering the call in a...
Third-person Bond is first-rate fun
Whereas Nintendo console gamers only get one James Bond shooter this fall, with the first-person GoldenEye 007 on Wii and third-person Blood Stone on HD platforms, DS owners get their pick of the litter with diminutive versions of both courtesy of developer n-Space. Just as GoldenEye on DS did, Blood Stone 007...
Use the handheld, that's what it's for!
Developer n-Space is no stranger to first-person shooters on Nintendo's technologically humble portable, having delivered three increasingly advanced Call of Duty DS games day-and-date with their console counterparts. That successful core formula hasn't changed all too much for their retelling of James Bond's...
Online modes headline the evening's event
Activision might be an easy target for gamers who feel certain franchises have been milked beyond recognition (Tony Hawk: SHRED, we're looking at you) and with DJ Hero's first annual sequel out now, you'd be forgiven in wondering if this will be another franchise we'll get sick of seeing. Thankfully, the...
The N64 is not enough
Ah, GoldenEye 007. A remarkable game on the ol’ Nintendo 64, no doubt about it. Countless hours of planting proximity mines in Basement and Facility for your friends to run into, scream and punch you on the arm is enough to earn a hall of fame spot in any player’s heart. So when Activision and Eurocom — who first became...
Review Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Wii)
Four dimensions, one disc
Making a superhero game suddenly became a lot more of a challenge last year, thanks to Rocksteady’s excellent Batman: Arkham Asylum. Activities tangential to what these characters are, like flying through rings and grabbing lost balloons for dumb kids, just doesn’t cut it anymore after roaming the terrifying asylum...
Definitely worthy of a rewind
Whether you like them or not, the Guitar Hero series has done a lot to popularise the rhythm genre in contemporary gaming, and although the premise of hitting buttons to the beat isn't exactly new, you have to give them credit for the success they have garnished. However, after years of seeing essentially the same game...
Review Shanghai II: Dragon's Eye (Virtual Console / Sega Mega Drive)
A history lesson in the failure of PC-to-console ports.
Activision was the first to sell a mahjong solitaire (for lack of a better term) game for IBM PCs and Apple Macs in 1986 under the name Shanghai. They even got the programmer of the original game -- which was created on University of Illinois mainframes -- to do the programming and create...
